Description

Community care is a concept which has shaped government policy, provision and practice for people with an intellectual disability for four decades.

The essays in this varied collection are multi-disciplinary, to bring the widest perspective to this controversial and elusive yet highly influential concept. They examine the barriers that people with an intellectual disability face, including access to housing, work, healthcare and online resources. They assess the practice of community care, and argue for far-reaching changes to care philosophy and the quality of services. They offer insightful comparative studies from around the world, including from the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, China and Bhutan.

Reviews

'A review like this cannot do justice to the diversity of views and insights in this collection of essays […] This is a most stimulating collection of essays. It is pertinent, informative and affirmative.'
-- Andrew Plant, Milltown Community, Scotland

'this book is so timely; it offers a series of fascinating and insightful contributions from a wide range of perspectives at a time when the case for intentional communities as settings for social care and support needs to be argued in political circles where national care policies are enacted. Such a collection fo essays will no doubt support those who feel called to the challenge. '
-- New View

'This is an excellent collection of essays, well edited and generally well written, with an important purpose: to offer a critical perspective on the typical pattern of supports for people within intellectual disabilities, which commonly goes under the name of ‘community care’. [...] I particularly appreciated the fact that the essays offered perspectives from all around the world - from Australia to Vermont, from Scotland to Bhutan and from New Zealand to China.'
-- Simon Duffy, Founder and Director for the Centre of Welfare Reform

'The book is an excellent contribution to the process of analyzing and understanding community and inclusion and a platform for developing more insightful and flexible policies and practices. It is critical reading as it brings together important research and applied knowledge, which is often absent from our deliberations about community.'
-- Professor Roy Brown, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

'This is an authoritative and substantial collection, setting out an agenda for the inclusion of people with an intellectual disability in society. In so doing, it challenges us to re-think the construct of community that has come to dominate policy and professional directions in recent decades. '
-- Mark Smith, Head of Social Work University of Edinburgh

'This book is welcome because there is very little research to date on intentional communities, and how the day-to-day lives of their residents differ from those of people with a learning disability in conventional dispersed housing schemes. It also points to the need for future studies to investigate the extent to which intentional communities differ from each other, and how they come under pressure from the wider society to conform to the organising principles of market corporatism.'
-- Dr Stuart Cumella, University of Birmingham

'This is a timely publication in a period when there is a world-wide crisis of the growing inequality between the life quality of people in our global society. [...] Not all may necessarily agree with the various opinions expressed in this book, but it is refreshing to have available some alternatives to the conventional wisdom of the ‘best’ way to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities enjoy ‘the good life’ they richly deserve.'
-- Professor Trevor R. Parmenter AM, University of Sydney, Australia

'Benefiting from this book does not depend on agreeing with the variety of points and perspectives its diverse chapters present but on being willing to try on different perspectives. It deserves to be widely and thoughtfully read.'
-- John O'Brien, Community Living

Author

Robin Jackson is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire. He recently guest edited the International Journal of Developmental Disabilities on 'Community inclusion and intellectual disability: meanings, means and myth' (2015) and is the author Who Cares? The impact of ideology, regulation and marketisation on the quality of life of people with an intellectual disability (Sheffield: The Centre for Welfare Reform, 2015).

Maria Lyons is a founder of the Camphill Research Network and the author of Re-thinking community care: the Camphill village model.